


the answers are living indefinitely

by HearJessRoar



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen, Identity Reveal, Male-Female Friendship, basically adrien and juleka are bros now, but not how it usually goes, there's talk about blood bc adrien was stabbed. lightly. he's fine.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 20:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6093136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearJessRoar/pseuds/HearJessRoar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the first person to discover Chat Noir’s secret identity, Juleka was remarkably calm.</p><p>Until she saw the blood on his shirt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the answers are living indefinitely

**Author's Note:**

> the end pics in reflekta gave me adrien/juleka bro feels. 
> 
> this is the result of that
> 
> they're older because i don't think current juleka swears so much
> 
> lemme know if i typo'd
> 
> or don't and let me look foolish, if that's your thing

Adrien was bleeding.

He could feel it trailing sticky rivulets down his back. Stupid mugger had gotten in a lucky slice with that pocket knife.

But Chat Noir didn't flinch, even as the young girl behind him screamed. She couldn't have been more than six, why on earth was she walking by herself?

More than a little irritated, Adrien walloped the guy across the head with his baton, smiling with grim satisfaction as the mugger went down heavily. He'd used maybe a tad more force than necessary, but hey, he'd been stabbed. He was allowed to be a little irrational. 

He waited with the girl for the police, examining his injury as subtly as he could.

It was a clean cut, from what he could tell. Plagg’s magic had repaired the tear in his suit’s shoulder, sealing before blood could hit pavement. 

It meant that while his reputation as an inhuman superhero was intact, the skin underneath was coated in tacky, sluggishly flowing blood.

And it was supremely uncomfortable. 

The little girl was clinging to his hand with both of hers, frightened tears drying on her cheeks. Chat was many things, but heartless was not one of them. He freed his fingers, patting her on the head and smoothing down copper curls before picking her up with his good arm.

She sniffled into his shoulder, hugging tightly around his neck. He tried not to wince as her clumsy, chubby fingers brushed his wound under the suit.

“Good kitty,” she mumbled, reaching up to touch his leather ears. He purred to make her laugh. It worked, drawing hiccupy giggles from her as she wiped her sticky face.

The flashing lights of the police car blinded him as they pulled up, a pair of frantic looking men spilling out of the backseat. The girl caught sight of them and immediately began to wriggle out of Chat’s hold. He let her go, a soft smile creeping across his face as they wrapped their daughter in a tight hug.

How lucky she was to have two fathers. Adrien would give anything to have only one.

One of the men made eye contact with him over his daughter's head. “Thank you, Chat Noir,”

Adrien nodded, turning his attention to the policemen about to carry away the scum that had the nerve to assault a little girl. Unable to stop himself, he pulled back a steel tipped boot and jabbed the man in the shin.

The man groaned, eyes blinking open. Chat gave a menacing, all teeth grin. “Walk on your own. These nice policemen have better things to do than carry you to jail.”

The officer he knew as Roger shook his head at him, but didn't protest. Chat took it as his cue to leave.

Running at a pace that didn't pull the bloodied leather against his skin, Adrien weighed his options. 

Transforming now would draw more attention than swinging into his room through the window. Someone was bound to notice a teenage boy with a rust colored stain blossomed on his shirt.

But he'd never had to re-enter his house as Chat in the daytime before. It would take a lot of calculating to not get caught on the security feeds.

Well. He was Chat Noir. Calculated risks were all part and parcel of the superhero gig.

Taking care to make sure he wasn't followed, Adrien zig zagged across the rooftops of Paris. Perched opposite his window, he waited, watching the camera on the side of the house. It wasn't a sweeping view camera, and he figured that if he aimed just right with his staff, he could pole vault right over its line of sight.

Hopefully his aching shoulder held out.

Just as he steadied his baton against the ground and pushed off, his ring gave out its warning beep. It startled him and his aim suffered, smashing him gracelessly into the glass of his own bedroom window.

Adrien groaned, his shoulder throbbing along with his head. He shoved the window open as he retracted his baton, wanting nothing more than a hot bath and complete silence for the next ten years.

Out of sight from the window, he commanded Plagg to release the transformation.

_No, wait-_

But Plagg’s warning came too late. As Chat Noir faded away, the gasp from behind him had Adrien frozen.

_Oh shit._

He'd forgotten about Juleka.

-

Okay, so that revelation hadn't gone the way he'd been expecting. 

For the first person to discover Chat Noir’s secret identity, Juleka was remarkably calm.

Until she saw the blood on his shirt.

Then she freaked in a way he'd never thought her capable of. 

“Adrien, you're bleeding! Oh my god, oh my god, what happened? You know what, no, I don't want to know, just tell me where you keep your first aid kit, oh my god that's a shitton of blood, holy shit!”

Adrien pointed silently to his ensuite bathroom, still a little stunned that she hadn't bothered to mention the fact that she'd accidentally unmasked one of Paris’s superheroes. 

Poor girl had only come over to work on their history project.

She grabbed the wrist of his good arm and tugged him to the bathroom, pushing him down to sit on the lip of the bathtub. She rifled through his cabinets, emerging with his first aid kit from under the sink.

Popping it open, Juleka frowned. “Do you have any scissors? I'm going to have to cut your shirt off.”

Adrien could actually feel his face turn pink, and marveled at the fact that he had any blood left to do so, seeing how much of it was stained all over his shirt. Juleka rolled her eyes.

“Don't tell me model boy is body shy?” she said, making Adrien blush harder as he stared resolutely at his shoes. “Oh my god. Okay, seriously Adrien, I'm not gonna grope you because a) I am super gay and b) you are _covered in your own blood._ Where are the scissors?”

“There’s a pair on my desk- oh.” he murmured, startled as Plagg appeared next to Juleka’s shoulder with the scissors in his tiny paws. Juleka didn't even blink, taking them from the kwami with a quiet thanks.

Plagg hunkered down quietly on the edge of the sink, looking worried and guilty. Adrien made a mental note to reassure him later that it hadn't been his fault.

Juleka sat next to him on the rim of the tub, pushing gently at his shoulders to turn him so his back was towards her. He felt her make quick snips up the back of his t shirt, the cool air making him shiver as she carefully peeled the fabric away.

He winced as the fibers stuck to the cut in his shoulder, and Juleka muttered an apology. He slid the ruined shirt all the way off his arms, dumping it in the tub with distaste.

Juleka prodded at the wound with gentle fingers. “It isn't deep,” she said, fumbling with something behind him. He heard the faucet turn on, and looked to see her wetting his shirt. She grinned. “I figure you don't want your house staff seeing bloodied towels. This is already wrecked. Might as well make use of it. I'll take it with me when I leave so you don't have to explain it to whoever.”

She wrung out the shirt, wiping at the dried blood on his back and shoulders. He could see that it wasn't nearly as bad as it had looked initially. The smeared blood had made it seem so serious; there wasn't as much as he thought, it was just...everywhere. From being trapped in his suit, he guessed.

“So,” Juleka began, rinsing out the fabric under the tap and going after the injury again to clean it more thoroughly. “Adrien Agreste is Chat Noir. Didn't see that coming.”

Adrien gave a self depreciating snort, trying very hard not to shrug. “Guess so.”

“That's friggen wicked, Adrien.”

He didn't say anything, letting Juleka carry on the conversation by herself. “I mean, it kind of explains a lot, honestly. You're never around during akuma attacks, always saying you were trapped somewhere or in the bathroom or whatever. But like, Marinette is always missing, too, so we all kinda figured you two were off making out or something,”

Adrien choked. “What?!”

Juleka huffed, sounding irritated. “Marinette is always gone, you're always gone, we were kind of hoping you'd finally noticed her and were keeping your relationship a secret. Guess not, huh?”

She paused, the wet shirt pressed against Adrien's skin. “You're always gone, but if you've been Chat Noir this whole time, what's Marinette doing when she goes missing?”

There was a long pause as Adrien considered that. Juleka seemed to have stunned herself with that train of thought.

“You don't think-”

“-that Marinette is Ladybug?”

“You don't know?” Juleka dropped the shirt into the tub. It landed with a damp plop, oozing pinkish water onto the white porcelain.

Adrien shook his head as Juleka washed her hands. She unwrapped a length of gauze from the first aid kit, picking up the scissors she'd left on the tile to cut it. She folded it into a thick square, dug out the medical tape, and brought the rest of the gauze roll back over to him.

“This won't be pleasant,” she warned, towering above him. Adrien grit his teeth as she pressed the gauze square over the cut, taping it down firmly. “You're lucky you don't need stitches. My medical knowledge only goes so far.”

Adrien sucked in a breath through his teeth as she began to wrap his injury, under and over his arm. She worked in silence for awhile, Adrien listening to the drip of the faucet she hadn't quite managed to shut off.

“You really don't know who she is?”

Her quiet voice startled him as she taped down the last of the bandage.

Adrien sighed. “My lady is very adamant about keeping our secret identities a secret, especially from each other.” He inspected her patch job, rather impressed.

His arm was thoroughly mummied, though it was flat enough no one would notice it under his shirt if he wore a jacket.

“I think it _is_ Marinette under that mask,” Juleka said, gathering up the scraps of gauze and tossing them in the trash. “She's the bravest, kindest person I know. If anyone is a superhero, it's her. And besides,” she let out the closest thing to a giggle he'd ever heard her manage. “How funny would it be if Ladybug was rejecting Chat Noir the whole time because the girl under the mask had a crush on Adrien instead?”

Adrien blinked, trying to work out that last bit. “Marinette has a crush on me?”

Juleka blanched. “Shit. You didn’t hear it from me.”

“Marinette has a crush on me? Why?!”

“Shiiiiit, I thought you knew! Everyone knows, I thought you were just being nice by not saying anything!”

“She can't have a crush on _me_ , on _Adrien_. Marinette deserves better, doesn't she know that? I mean at least as Chat, I can protect people, but as _myself-_ ”

_CRACK_

Adrien touched his stinging cheek. She hadn't slapped him hard, but still.

Not nearly as hard as she wanted to, judging by the anger in her eyes when he looked at her with disbelief. 

“You hit me!”

“You were being stupid!”

Juleka crossed her arms, looking very much like she'd like nothing more than to slap him again. She tossed her head, flicking her purple hair out of her face so he could see both her eyes. “You listen to me, Adrien Agreste. You are worth attention. You are smart and kind and funny and loyal and maybe kind of a dweeb, but that's okay because that's who you are. Marinette sees those things. We all do. Deal with it.”

Adrien blinked back tears, staring at his feet. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had told him they liked him as he was, without the mask. Even with Nino, so free with his affections, it was only ever implied. He probably figured Adrien didn't need to hear it, that he already knew.

Juleka tilted his face back up towards her, her finger under his chin. She was always tall, but as raw and tired as he was, Adrien had never felt as small as he did looking up at her just then. She smiled.

“And Paris adores Chat. _Ladybug_ adores Chat. Everyone can see that. So whichever side is more of a mask, please know that we like _all_ of you.”

He felt the tears spill as Juleka turned away, giving him a moment. Plagg, who had been watching the whole exchange, brought him a tissue from the box on the sink. He blew his nose loudly. She pretended not to notice, packing away the first aid kit methodically, with over-careful attention to give him some time to pull himself together.

She clapped her hands together once. “Okay, sappy emotional comfort time is over. That's my quota for the year. Now it's find-a-topic-for-our-history-project time,” she strode out of the bathroom, long hair swinging behind her. “I'm thinking _Why Lafayette Should Have Minded His Own Damn Business_ , what do you think? Oh and Adrien?”

She popped her head back through the doorway, a teasing smile on her face.

“Hmm?”

“Put a shirt on.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Exactly Who You'd Expect.. Or Not](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6551512) by [Choose_wisely](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Choose_wisely/pseuds/Choose_wisely)




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